The draw was good enough for Herediano to win the group with a 3-0-1 record and advance to the CCL quarterfinals next February, while RSL finished second in the group with a 2-1-1 record.

A 1-0 victory for RSL would’ve been good enough to advance.

“I thought we played great. I thought it was going to come, but that’s football sometimes. It gets the best of you even when you’re the better team. Congratulations to them, they played a great defensive game and they came out on top,” said goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

Rimando’s counterpart at the other end of the field was the hero of the night.

Herediano keeper Leonel Moreira made eight saves on the night, including seven in a scintillating first-half performance.

Even though Moreira got help from woodwork on that shot, he came up huge later in the half to punch away a Nat Borchers header in the 28th minute and then smother a close-range Will Johnson shot in the 42nd minute.

“I think it’s always going to be a little mentally frustrating when you get some clear chances and you don’t take them, but I think our guys put all the right effort into it. Herediano made it very, very difficult obviously in the second half, literally 11 players always in the penalty box,” said Kreis.

In the second half, Herediano consistently dropped 10 to 11 guys behind the ball to play for the draw, which didn’t make for a pretty match, but it was effective.

Real Salt Lake dodged a major bullet in the 57th minute when Herediano striker Yendrick Ruiz cracked a shot off the left post on a counter attack, a goal that would’ve forced RSL to win 3-1 to advance.

Tony Beltarn and Jonny Steele of Real Salt Lake battles to control the ball against Jose Garro of C.S. Herediano during their CONCACAF match up at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Ut.,Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. (Brian Nicholson, Deseret News)

Even though the loss was similar in nature to RSL’s loss to Monterrey in the Champions League final 18 months ago, Kreis doesn’t expect a similar hangover from his team.

He looks back on that Monterrey match was a penultimate game in a history-making opportunity, whereas Tuesday night was simply to advance out of the group play.

Real Salt Lake will try and put the loss in the rearview mirror this Saturday in the regular-season finale against Vancouver, and Rimando doesn’t expect that to be a problem.

“If we play like we did in the first half, there’s no rebounding. Just concentrate on our game and I have no worries about how we’re going to play (in the playoffs),” said Rimando.